New Orleans , Louisiana -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- In September of 2005 , no one could have anticipated what we saw in New Orleans last week . What happened on the football field and parade route after the Saints ' Super Bowl victory is amazing and uplifting . But what 's happening elsewhere in New Orleans also rises to that standard .

Consider the following :

The day before the Super Bowl , New Orleans participated in a historic mayoral election , as Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu won a stunning 66-percent of the vote , with unprecedented support among all races .

African-American candidates also won down-ballot races with majority white support , casting a blow to the notion that New Orleans politics and culture are mired in racial tension .

Just weeks before , federal arbitrators awarded $ 475 million to Louisiana for the replacement of Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans which makes way for a multibillion dollar medical corridor that is being billed as the largest development project in the city 's history .

And in late 2009 , a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ' mismanagement at the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was the cause for flood damage in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita . Damages paid to local governments and residents will exceed $ 1 billion . These judgments validate many locals ' beliefs that the flooding of 80 percent of New Orleans and the billions of dollars in damage were caused more by massive engineering failures than a natural disaster .

To that point , the government is working on a $ 15 billion upgrade to the region 's 220-plus miles of levees and flood walls that , when completed , will allow them to withstand a storm with a strength level that occurs roughly once every 100 years . Even today , experts will tell you the levees are better than they were before Hurricane Katrina .

Additionally , the population is nearing 80 percent of pre-Katrina levels , in part due to hardworking residents who came back and a new crop of younger , entrepreneurial transplants moving to the city to be part of what is going on here .

The New Orleans economy is bearing the recession better than most , evidenced in one of the lowest unemployment rates of any major metropolitan area in the country . Also , the city now has a bond rating that is investment-grade , which should free up access to tens of millions of dollars for infrastructure improvements .

One of the brightest spots in post-Katrina New Orleans has been in education . In Orleans Parish , academic performance scores in the school district have risen nearly 25 percent . The school system looks to get a ten-figure lump-sum settlement to rebuild school properties across the city . And with over half of its students in charter schools and a large and influential Teach for America corps , New Orleans has become a laboratory and model for education reform .

All of this is not to say that everything is going perfectly in New Orleans . Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu and New Orleanians still have remarkable challenges to tackle and tough decisions to make -- including reducing violent crime , eliminating blighted housing , continuing to rebuild communities and business , and restoring wetlands that provide much needed storm protection . But there is a unity of purpose -LRB- thanks in large part to the Saints -RRB- that was n't there even six months ago .

The recovery and rebirth includes citizen-driven reform of local government -- a government once marked by corruption , nepotism , incompetence and the like . New Orleanians voted to consolidate the seven assessor 's offices , the criminal and civil sheriffs , and the various levee boards . But most importantly , New Orleanians elected an outstanding man as mayor this past Saturday to lead the next phase of recovery .

The mayoral election was nothing short of staggering , and the confluence of the Saints win and the historic mayoral election , lined up for the city 's best two days since the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 .

Landrieu was elected in the primary -LRB- there will be no runoff -RRB- with 66 percent of the vote , including 63 percent of African-Americans and 70 percent of white voters . To say this broad support is unprecedented would be a gross understatement .

Landrieu becomes the first white mayor to govern the majority-African-American city in some 30 years . -LRB- His father , Moon Landrieu , was the last white mayor . -RRB- And he does it after winning all but one precinct in the primary election . In Landrieu , businesses , congressional leaders , nonprofit organizations and average citizens will finally have a leader and partner in a united city government that promises to restore confidence and get dollars flowing to projects that need them .

Add to that the fact that New Orleans will be front and center on the world stage for much of the next decade , hosting a series of national and international sporting events , including Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 , back-to-back NCAA Men 's and Women 's Final Fours , and the Bowl Championship Series National Championship in 2012 , among many others . In 2015 , the nation will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans . And in 2018 , New Orleans ' tricentenary will focus not only on the founding of New Orleans but also its successful rebirth 300 years later .

You see , the effort to rebuild and recover has been not just an engineering feat to save a city , an entire culture has been at stake . We have our own cuisine , music , architecture , funeral traditions , literature and cultural structure . And as of late , it looks like it will be preserved .

More restaurants are in operation than before the hurricane , New Orleanians took home two Grammy awards this past year , and many important cultural sites have reopened recently or are scheduled to reopen soon .

The world should take notice . Thanks to the Saints , you 're looking . But take a deeper glimpse beyond football at what 's going on here . For as challenging a decade as the 2000s were for New Orleans , the 2010s may prove to be the brightest time in the city 's nearly 300-year history .

The momentum is building .

New Orleans is not just coming back and not just on its way back . New Orleans is storming back .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of James Carville .

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James Carville : New Orleans is experiencing a historic rebirth

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He says the Saints victory has given the city a big lift

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Election of Mitch Landrieu and major infrastructure investments are making a difference , he says

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Carville : Improvements in education one of the brightest parts of New Orleans ' rebirth